A Lesser Evil? The European Agenda on Migration and the Use of Aid Funding for Migration Control

46 Pages Posted: 11 May 2017

See all articles by Daria Davitti

Daria Davitti

Lund University, Faculty of Law; University of Nottingham

Annamaria La Chimia

University of Nottingham

Date Written: April 11, 2017

Abstract

During the first five months of 2015 approximately 1,850 people died across the Mediterranean whilst attempting to reach the European Union (EU). In response to this, in April 2015 the Commission presented a 10-point action plan, on the basis of which the Council agreed to strengthen the EU’s ‘presence at sea, to fight traffickers, to prevent illegal migration flows and to reinforce internal solidarity and responsibility’. As a result of this agreement, on 13 May 2015 the Commission presented a highly controversial European Agenda on Migration (hereinafter ‘European Agenda’), which included both internal and external policy measures. One of the cardinal objectives of the European Agenda is to ‘address the root causes of migration’, and to fulfil this objective the EU aims at ‘mainstream[ing] migration issues into development cooperation’. However, since the adoption of the European Agenda, and arguably because of it, EU member states have not lived up to their obligations to extend international protection to those who need it. Similarly, as detailed in this article, they have pushed for policies aimed at externalising the management of migration, including through dubious bilateral agreements which foresee the use of aid funding in return for cooperation on migration control. In so doing, they have failed to move towards a more coherent, humane and legally acceptable response to the arrival of people on European shores.

Keywords: European Union, Migration, Death, Traffickers, European Agenda, Protection

Suggested Citation

Davitti, Daria and La Chimia, Annamaria, A Lesser Evil? The European Agenda on Migration and the Use of Aid Funding for Migration Control (April 11, 2017). UCD Working Papers in Law, Criminology & Socio-Legal Studies Research Paper No. 07/17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2966042

Daria Davitti (Contact Author)

Lund University, Faculty of Law ( email )

Box 117
Lund, SC Skane S221 00
Sweden

University of Nottingham ( email )

University Park
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
United Kingdom

Annamaria La Chimia

University of Nottingham ( email )

University Park
Nottingham, NG8 1BB
United Kingdom

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